The Behaviour of Japanese Players in Playing Japanese Mobile Games

Issy ( 1,020 words ), Phoebe ( 1,289 words ), Rain ( 1,124 words )

Introduction: (Issy)

The growth of the smartphone has led to a mobile gaming increase, with millions of players losing themselves inside their phones in fantasy worlds.

In this study, we are going to analyse the Japanese people’s behaviour and why Japanese people spend money on the in-game purchases and take the game so seriously. 

Japanese mobile games became popular in Japan’s mobile games community in the early 2000’s years before other countries such as NA,EU or US. In 2003, Japanese phones made available a wide variety of smartphone games, starting from puzzle games for example: a puzzle mobile game(Puzzle and Dragon) and interactive pet titles using camera phone and fingerprint scanning technology to 3D games with incredible high quality graphic.As we know too,some of the Japanese mobile game players take their mobile games very seriously. Of course, there are some casual players too. For those players , they may play mobile games on the train to kill time or they enjoy playing the mobile game with their friend on the train .

According to the Wall Street Journal in 2013, Japan became the world’s largest sales market for video games in 2013. Today, the Japanese gaming industry is being rapidly dominated by smartphone games, which produced $5.1 billion in 2013, more than the country’s conventional console games. We can see that Japanese mobile game is playing an important role in its economy.

Where will our much loved hobby be without Japanese game culture? 

So, think about that, Japan is a place that massively gathered  influential developers and publishers such as Nintendo, Sega, Cave and Konami. For the rest of the world,Japan has always been a bit of a mystery. It has an extraordinarily long and charming history, a diverse culture, and a language which an outsider especially western has very hard to learn.

The uniqueness of Japan extends even to the digital culture. Japan is always creating incredibly entertaining and unique video and audio material as well as nowadays PC, smartphone games and console games. We also concern about why Japanese people 

Since our group is now focusing on Japanese mobile games, reading the comments on Youtube and looking at the people’s behaviour will be our goal to study the Japanese digital culture.

Besides, we also look at the behavior of people, why spending so much money on the in-game purchase, some of the players spent a large amount on the in-game purchase, we are looking at the reasons in this study.

Methodology : (Raine and Phoebe)

(Raine)

In the methodology of this project, first we will do information gathering for Japanese Mobile Games on Youtube, Google and Japanese social platforms which are related to mobile game players. After data collection, we will sort the data and we will be carrying out research on the form of autoethnography, the aim of autoethnography is to recreate the researcher’s experience in a reflexive way, aiming at making a connection to the reader which can help him or her to think and reflect on their own experiences. We try to observe the mobile game players in their natural environment, and look at their behavior and the Japanese mobile market flow of different types.

For Youtube platforms, we will study user comments on the Japanese mobile game culture, We can see the users share their positive and negative comments. In this way, we can analyze what is the meaning behind this and we will observe their gaming experience to us through automatic ethnography. Why are they attracted to spend money on the game? What is their feeling about typing comments with Youtube? What do we think of this Japanese gaming culture? What is our view and opinion?

(Phoebe)

What’s more, we will do several researches on Japanese blog posts from different websites,  such as WordPress or Gamasutra, which mentions how Japanese views in ACG subculture and their behavior behind them while they are playing popular Japanese games. We’re here to use Autoethnography to discuss our topic. It is unique in research and writing since it aims to express and analyze personal experience behind Japanese gaming culture. We ought to think and examine the methods that other people may experience the similar epiphanies to finalize our research of Japanese gaming culture with Autoethnography. We believe that we’ll gather plenty of information and their opinions of Japanese gaming culture, for instance, why they would spend so much money on enhancing their skills of playing well-known Japanese video games. 

From Japanese social platforms, we can learn about the game industry behind gaming culture since preserving game industry history is significant too. We’ll guide you to make a unique look at the state and art of Japanese game preservation behind the Japanese gaming culture. One of the Japanese social platforms is LINE which is first-rated in Japan. There’re some more like Facebook, Snapchat, etc. We’ll try and explore the views and comments of Japanese gaming culture and how they react to the challenges, fun, and responsibilities of Japanese game preservation. 

Data Collection(Study from the youtube comments):(Rain and Phoebe)

(Raine)

Meet the Man Who Has Spent $70,000 Playing a Mobile Game

  This video talking about Sony shooting up a 31 year old fat man over time and looking for  her spent $70000 yen on a mobile game. He usually spent most of his time playing mobile games. We can see he loves mobile games.

  For the comment we can see some people will agree that and they enjoy this thing, some people do not accept that they spend so much money on the mobile phone game, why did this situation on japanese? Along with japanese AGC market keep rising, The Japanese like this type of game that includes collection, sharing, and exchange. This form is an abstraction of the Japanese capsular and trading cards. There are many capsule stores in Japan. There are dozens or even hundreds of capsule machines in the specialty store at the same time, they live in this environment. Under this kind of culture, they are willing to pay on the collection they love. According to Game age research a series of latest survey report on the japanese game, about 32.23 million players is average age of 60 year old in japan, among them, male players account for 58%, female player account for 42%, there are about 29.58 million of japanese mobile phone user, which is about 1:3, the average age of the players is also older group, the players over 30 account for 54.2% of the total players, more than half of the total group. It can be seen that the mobile game market in japan is dominated by middle- age male players as a whole, so that will alawy see older men mobile players. Moreover, japanese middle-age have a hard life. They think mobile games are fun and novel, so they will pay for them.

(Phoebe)

2019 Anime Mobile Gacha game Revenue Review (Japan)

  Mobile games are a staple of Japanese gamerdom. There are plenty of Japanese mobile games. While mobile games are often derided by western players, Japanese mobile games still bring large success and huge benefits for the gaming market in Japan.

According to the comments above, we can see that Japanese gaming culture impressed the Japanese very much. Some of the audience said that they agreed with the ranking of popular Japanese mobile games, for instance, Fate Grand Order, which has got US $180,806,494.00 Values and 154,339 Downloads. One of the comments shows that there’s a huge difference between the first and second place. The value of the first one is US $180,806,494.00 Values and the second one is US $54,798,312.00. Japanese love the gorgeous creation of Japanese mobile games and they take Japanese mobile games very seriously. Japanese mobile games really bring people immense satisfaction and guide their lives to the fullest.

(Phoebe)

GGC 2015: “Video Games and Japanese Culture” bby Yoshihiro Kishmoto

According to the video, Professor Kishimoto mentioned some of the Japanese video games, for instance, Super Mario and Pokemon. They became well-known all over the world and nobody doesn’t know them. Kishimoto highlighted that Japanese video games have brought both technology and creativity together and became so successful in today’s gaming market.

There’s only one comment in this video however that doesn’t mean that it is not important. The person talked about the interest of the huge contrast from past to present in Japanese video games history. The talk of Kishimoto is focused on how the power of Japanese video games can facilitate education and society at large. He discussed the history of video games from arcade games, like Space Invaders, to home entertainment systems (NES), portable games such as Pokemon, and finally smartphone games for instance Puzzle and Dragons. The audience feels interested about the history of Japanese video games and the aim of promoting Japanese gaming culture. Japanese video games are unique as Japan was isolated from the world for most of its history. Thus, it has kept the different cultures and from the other developed nations. From the comment and video, we can find the source of what makes Japanese games special. That is its history.

Analysis of the behavior of Japanese player (in-game purchase)/ Take games serious behaviour:(Issy and Phoebe)

(Issy)

In-game Purchase Behaviour:

We are looking at why Japanese take their mobile games seriously and why players spend their money on in-game purchases from different ways such as youtube and from secondary data research. There are some reasons that they do purchase in-game content.

Based on the youtube videos of the user demonstrating their gacha in mobile games, we can see that the players are seeking the virtual items for the game avatars. Virtual items are the items that are bought with real-world money for an avatar in-game such as weapons,equipment, a set for the character or skin personalizations. Players can buy virtual items through the Apple itunes card or google play store. 

Most of these games are free to play , however the gacha system attracts the player to spend money on it.

What does Gacha mean?

according to definitions.net (https://www.definitions.net/definition/gacha),

Gacha means:

In Japan (and now in the West too) a Gacha is a toy machine into which a customer puts money into. They twist a crank and out pops a plastic egg, inside of which appears a prize, usually a collectible toy figure, which is part of a complete set.

Why do people want to buy virtual items? 

Most of the in-game purchase virtual items considered as a rare item. As a rare item , only the small part of the players can pay and get it.

The in-game purchase is an unique element of buying the limited virtual items.(eg: gacha items or limited virtual items)

Special or exclusive items appear to be unachievable by playing, and must be purchased with money instead. Online exclusivity has been shown to be significant, and differentiation is a strategy used by the producers of games that limits certain products to certain classes, ranks, or races.

The reason for in-game purchasing behaviors sound not difficult to a normal people which is not playing mobile games . The item has a valuable function and it is better than the ordinary item or it the avatar is special.

Virtual items are not always considered to be degradable or limited as they are just the output of computer code.The gap between the real world and the virtual mobile game is that a player is measured primarily on their material virtual objects and the quality of their virtual items, purchasing is a measure of the talent and accomplishment, which has an impact on the popularity of the players.

Besides, as the supply of the virtual item always has a time limit, it is called “limited virtual items” with an expiration date. Players must purchase the item before the expiry date. the desire of the players to purchase the limited virtual items increases. Most of the players interviewed were spending most money on exclusive items with expiration.

From the video above, The famous Japanese voice actor, better known by her nickname (Aoi Yuki,悠木碧) has mentioned her in-game purchase experience on mobile games, She mentioned why she keep spending money on in-game purchase. As the game releases so many events ,such as  Christmas events and valentine’s events etc… or releases some virtual items that she wanted to buy such as maid suits and swimsuits. She feels interested in purchasing the virtual goods or doing the Gacha on the mobile game.

As a result, we can see that some of the limited events and the limited virtual items can really attract the players to spend money with. Not only the limited events but also the social status of the gaming and purchasing is also an indicator to the in-game purchase behaviour too. The motivation of purchasing the virtual items always be the limited item and the self-expression.

(Phoebe)

Behaviour of taking games seriously:

Why do people take Japanese mobile games so seriously?

For the behavior of taking games seriously, we would like to highlight how people view Japanese mobile games and why they take them so seriously. On top of that, we explore that Intellectuals love playing Japanese mobile games, especially one-upmanship mobile games, as they aim to show off their repertoire of Western knowledge. David Riesman mentions that the behavior is called “Cultural Humility” of the Japanese which means that this is the tradition of a Japanese intellectual exploring a Western tutor. 

A game creator in an Artist Residency: my experience at Villa Kujoyama

https://gamasutra.com/blogs/ChristopheGalati/20200212/357963/A_game_creator_in_an_Artist_Residency_my_experience_at_Villa_Kujoyama.php

A blogger Christophe Galati shared his own experience and opinion of Japanese mobile games and posted it on Gamasutra as a blog post from the video above. He took his time to play plenty of classic games of the JRPG genre in his journey, for instance, Mother 3, Terranigma, Final Fantasy IX, etc. Galati went to many retro game shops in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo, as to explore the Japanese box arts to inspire his experience of playing Japanese mobile games. It really gives us immense inspiration that players take Japanese games awfully serious due to their cultural identity. They are aware of their own Japanese gaming culture and treat it as the well-known, meaningful culture of Japanese. Japanese is proud of the success of their Japanese mobile games. Their national pride is supported by the strong sense of belongingness which is proud of Japanese mobile games. 

People love Japanese mobile games and even want to bring them to life! Taking Super Mario as an example, it is a well-known Japanese mobile game and everyone knows it. A video creator created gorgeous footage and brought Super Mario to life using special effects. People love Japanese mobile games and even bring them to real life. Matdeuh, who is a designer from France, captures the fictional character Mario jumping out from the computer screen and accidentally destroys the things in the living room. After he posted the video to Instagram, everyone admired his work. One said ‘This is amazing, the attention to detail and the interaction with reality is unreal’ and another said: ‘The bounce on the cat’s head ahahah! Brilliant video editing as always!’, ‘Perfectly done’. People take Japanese mobile games so seriously and design their own artwork for respecting famous Japanese mobile games and spreading the art of Japanese mobile games and Japanese gaming culture to the world.

(Rain)

By spending money show personal characteristics and style:

The Japanese like this type of game that includes collection, sharing, and exchange. This form is an abstraction of the Japanese capsular and trading cards. There are many capsule stores in Japan. which are dozens or even hundreds of capsule machines in the specialty store at the same time, the scene is very spectacular, and each capsule machine has its own theme. Players are free to choose their favorite theme to buy coins, because every time they use a random extraction method, every time they fall out, they do n’t know which one it will be. The surprise is high, what they experience is to share with friends Collect and exchange fun. There are also trading cards popular in Japan. There are several cards in each packet, and the card group is formed by purchasing more card packets. Yu-Gi-Oh! Is a typical trading card game. In fact, Nintendo also has a card game with a Pokemon theme. At the same time, the Pokemon game itself also includes collecting, sharing, and exchanging elements. I bought all of Yugi’s four full drawers. Japan’s popular capsule machine and trading card culture also deeply influenced Japanese games.

Conclusion:(Rain and Phoebe)

(Rain)

  Throughout the process of Japanese gaming culture, we discuss the unique characteristics of Japanese video games from the cultural viewpoint of Japan’s trend play, and analyse the Japanese people’s behaviour and why Japanese people spend money on in-game purchases and take the game so seriously. The result is that as we found japanese people love mobile games very much that they even want to incorporate them into life and they will spend money on their mobile game.

  A big reason why japanese like playing mobile games so much, I feel is because they are an escape from our sometimes boring and monotonous lives. Sometimes it’s nice to put on the shoes of a made-up character and forget about all our troubles. I know that after I’ve had a hard day, I come home and put on a headset and play a good game; Action-adventure games are my favorites because I get sucked into the game’s world and forget about everything around me, this shows that japanese are so addicted to mobile games.

  As a mobile game became a trend because of the wide rage of interests that they cater to, every game is made up of a combination of several different elements, in some comment we can see their admiration for the game, a good mobile game tend to be the ones in which these elements fit together seamlessly and at the same time are good enough to be appreciated by themselves, these elements such include music, graphics, and narrative, work together to give each game with a unique feel. At the same time each element is already an established form of entertainment in its own right. At the same time each element is already an established form of entertainment in its own right. People who are passionate about music can enjoy a good soundtrack. Artists and designers can admire the creativity of the world and characters that must be created for the game.For this reason almost anyone can find something to enjoy in a good video game. 

   What’s more, Japan can be said to be the game market in the early stages of developing game culture throughout Asia. There are a lot of high-quality games, which has caused Japanese players to be very critical of game quality, Imagination. Think about Pokemon for example. It now has around 600–700+ Pokemon to date. MANY of them took a lot of time, dedication, creativity and effort. Japan has a knack for creating things that feed our imagination. And are able to take us to places never thought possible.

(Phoebe)

Overall in this autoethnography, we connected the views and behaviour of Japanese players and how they related to Japanese mobile games addict and gaming culture. Japanese desire to spend lots of money in well-known Japanese mobile games, for instance, Fate Grand Order which is first-rated. FGO has got US $180,806,494.00 Values and 154,339 Downloads. We can see that the market of Japanese mobile games is rising awfully rapidly and becoming a craze in the world. Japanese players get plugged in the gaming culture of their own country. There’s no doubt that people take Japanese mobile games very seriously and treat them as the identity of culture and national pride.

Last but not least, Japanese mobile games definitely bring immense satisfaction for Japanese players and people all over the world. We have concluded that there are three behaviours behind Japanese gaming culture of Japanese players, for instance, the behaviour of In-game purchase, behaviour of taking games seriously, By spending money to show personal characteristics and style. We discovered that Japanese players feel interested in purchasing the virtual goods or doing the Gacha on the mobile games from plenty of the YouTube videos and comments we have mentioned. Japanese players treat mobile games as a serious, significant thing in their lives. Some of the limited events and the limited virtual items can surely absorb the Japanese players to spend money with. Not only the limited events but also the social status of the gaming and purchasing is also an indicator to the in-game purchase behaviour. Japanese mobile games bring Japanese players’ lives to the fullest and fulfill their national pride with plenty of behavior behind the Japanese gaming culture.

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